


Starcatcher

by LocketShoru



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Age of Myth, Fluffy, Love Languages, M/M, Natural Disasters, Romance, Saint Seiya Rarepair Week 2020, Slice of Life, Themes of Sickness, Universe Alteration - Anthro, Universe Alteration - Otherkin, Wyvern Rhadamanthys' POV, no beta we die like gold saints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:22:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26941339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocketShoru/pseuds/LocketShoru
Summary: [Day 6: Sickness] Santorini exploded. The Mediterranean has been devastated, quite possibly beyond repair. Two Spectres, both relatively new to their duties and the details of death, embark on a quest to see what can be salvaged.
Relationships: Wyvern Rhadamanthys/Minotaurus Gordon
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Saint Seiya Rarepair Week 2020





	Starcatcher

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so. I got three more fics to do, and goddamnit I will get at least one more out tonight. I have another surprise assignment due Tuesday. This is the longest I've put off an assignment all semester. I hate Java. But goddamnit I will get this challenge completely done.  
> Anyway have some AoM RhadaGordon. Gordon is known actually as the original name given to the Minotaur - Asterius, also the name of Rhada's, Minos', and Sarpedon's mortal stepfather!  
> Santorini exploding is what caused the fall of the Bronze Age, and also the twelve plagues of Egypt. It wrecked Crete, caused famines and plagues and stopped trade long enough for entire cities to die out from the lack of supplies. So this is set pre-Athena-Holy-Wars, but just as the fall of the Age of Myth is beginning. They have no idea what's about to hit them. As for who they're going to go see, if you're curious - it's Hekate!  
> 

How long had they been travelling? It was hard to say. It was getting harder and harder to say for certain. Santorini's explosion had left them all devastated, and the Meikai still struggled in putting itself back together, and there had been so many, many deaths. More were coming. The ashen rain was going to fall for years, causing sickness, famine, war over uncontaminated water. And they had been travelling for weeks.

Rhadamanthys didn't dare take to the skies - no, it was a terrible idea, with the burning hell still up there with all the smoke - and he couldn't have, not with Asterius beside him, one hoof in front of the other, keeping to the ground. He wasn't the type to want to go into the sky on a normal day, let alone a day where the sky was a very dangerous place to be.

"Lord Rhadamanthys," Asterius began, his voice uncertain but loud enough to be heard. It was the first either of them had spoken all day.

"Just Rhadamanthys will do," he replied, almost absentmindedly. His position as Judge of Hell - relatively new, though both of them had been Spectres for a couple of centuries at this point - meant that most Spectres, even those technically under his command, wanted to refer to him like he was a prince under Hades' command. Minos and Aiacos faced the same problem. Minos, who hadn't stopped being a king just because he'd been drowned by an inventor, had taken to his position with flair and an earnest desire to improve everything he saw. Aiacos, who expanded outward, who knew how to build something defensible and strong. Aiacos would make a monument to the ages that would stay standing. Minos would ensure it was worth living in. Rhadamanthys?

He was still figuring out his place. He liked talking to the wild animals that made their home in the dark land that was the Meikai, and he liked working with people, establishing trade routes and braving the mooring lands that made up their borders. He hadn't been there for long before he declared the land of fungi across the gap of Tartarus to be off-limits. None of his scouts had come back once sent out. It was dangerous, and he wasn't about to sacrifice any more simply to investigate it. But there was a desert to their south and a highland to their north, and both were known places on the surface world, too.

Maybe he could forge goodwill between them, once he figured out who lead what seemed to be Underworlds for different parts of the world. Maybe he would find his place after all.

"Okay, sir. I was just wondering… Where exactly are we going? We've been travelling for days, and you haven't told me what we're looking for." Asterius' voice was hesitant, but then again, when wasn't it? He had died before Rhadamanthys did, and actually before Minos did. In life he had been known almost exclusively as the Minotaur, though Rhadamanthys had been sure he did actually have a name before he had taken up the title. He had been correct, and he'd found it almost sweet that Minos had named his stepson for their own stepfather.

Being a Spectre had given Asterius the chance to be acknowledged as something other than a monster that he couldn't stop being. It was a small repayment for all he had been through. He'd wanted to be near his father at first, when Minos had arrived, but he'd grown enough to be able to leave his blood family and explore a bit on his own.

Rhadamanthys had been a little surprised that Asterius had gravitated towards him, or maybe it was just his determination to pet every monster he saw, regardless of how likely they were to try to take a chunk out of him. 

"We're going to go see an old friend of mine, and that means getting to Athens," he answered. It was… doubtful if she was going to help them, but the least he could do was ask. She'd lived there a long, long time, so close to Athena's Sanctuary and yet opposing her every idea. It was a miracle the two weren't at war yet, really, though Athena was a little preoccupied with terrorizing Poseidon. He wasn't sure how long that was going to last.

"Right," Asterius said, and sped up his pace a little, to stop lagging behind. He swung an elbow up to his face to cough, shaking his head a little. He had a pair of impressive horns, complete with the ability to shift between his original Minotaur form and a completely-human appearance at will. That had been part of Queen Persephone's mercy, tying the power to his surplice to avoid exhausting him with every transformation.

"Are you all right?" He stopped where he was on the side of the road, glancing back at his companion. Asterius shook his head again, and looked up at him. He'd kept his hooves at the moment, wearing a nice, if dark robe and golden latticework around his cannons. Rhadamanthys still looked fully human. If any part of him was a wyvern, like his surplice, he didn't know about it.

Asterius nodded. "I think so. It's just the ash, honest. We'll be out of it soon, right?"

Rhadamanthys looked at him, and shook his head. "No. Ash will fall for years, if the summer storms don't blow it out to sea."

"Then we're looking at… what, then?" Asterius stepped up beside him again, and they continued to walk. He looked up to the dusty, dark sky. It was barely noon. "I can't breathe very well, and if I can't, then livestock doesn't stand much of a chance. Without sunlight, the crops are going to start dying."

"Which says nothing of the water, which is full of ash," Rhadamanthys added, somewhat dryly. "Or the fact that Santorini devastated Crete, and they're the ones getting supplies across the Mediterrenean."

Asterius winced. "So then we head home after this, and what do we do? We can help run supplies and get Crete back up, right?"

He sighed, heavily so, remembering that last meeting he'd had with the King and Queen. "Officially, nothing has been decided yet. Zeus has told everyone he's looking into the problem, and to hold tight. We may be on the front lines of the rescue operation. We also may not be, and we need to be prepared for him to ask something of us that we are not willing to give."

Asterius glanced over, thick black eyebrows furrowed in worry. "What do you think of it, Sire?"

On the horizon looked to be an overturned cart. He sped up a little, jogging over to it. Maybe someone needed help, and that would make him feel a little better.

"We should help," he said. Asterius followed him. At second glance, it looked like robbers had overtaken it on the road. One of the wheels was broken, and one side of the horse-holster had been snapped off. There wasn't anything alive near it, not that he could see or feel with his cosmos.

Asterius leaned over, lifting the entire cart with surprisingly gentle hands and setting it back on what was left of its wheels. He made a noise of displeasure and stepped away from the cart almost as quickly. Rhadamanthys stepped around him, trying to see what had startled him.

The corpse looked a few hours old, and wildlife had already gotten to parts of it. Whoever it had been was no longer discernible. What he could see was the Roman pendant around what used to be the corpse's neck. Even if the soul had lingered - not likely - another Underworld would have claimed them either way. There was nothing left for the Spectres to take, or to interview to learn what had happened.

Rhadamanthys glanced over his shoulder at Asterius, who was steadfastly scanning the cart for any signs of an attack. "I didn't know you were squeamish."

"I'm not a big fan of roadkill," he muttered in response. "Sure, I used to eat humans, but Father always made a point of having them butchered properly first, so I didn't eat anything that might poison me. I don't like seeing corpses like this."

He bit back a chuckle, stifling his amusement. He wasn't so wary of a corpse - had seen plenty, at this point, and he was more the investigative type - but perhaps Asterius had chosen the wrong post-mortem career. Maybe he would come around.

"There's nothing more we can do here, I don't think," he said. "Our best bet is to keep going, and hope we see the city-lights by dawning. We're not so far now."

Asterius nodded. "All right, Sire."

They made camp in the discovery of a small cave, evidently used for quite a few decades specifically for that purpose. Rhadamanthys started up a fire with his cosmos, still delighting in how easy it was. One would naturally assume he could create fire virtually at will, being a demigod, but the truth was, lightning was a blunt-force tool, not any weapon of precision. He didn't so much start fires with his powers as much as he simply exploded things and hoped there was enough left for flames.

They still had some food left in their packs - it had been days since either one had seen civilization - but it wasn't all that much. If they were as close to Athens as he thought, they'd be able to resupply in the morning. Asterius had resumed coughing, with an increased frequency that was seriously beginning to bother him. Yes, the air was a little ashy, but it wasn't likely to get worse until the winds shifted their course. It wasn't any worse than the summer dust, before the rains came.

"Are you all right?" he asked, after Asterius had launched into a coughing fit for the twelfth time that evening. "Is the smoke of the fire bothering you?"

His companion shook his head, and when he managed a wheezy, shallow breath, he answered, "I can't taste the smoke, but the ash is getting to me."

He nodded. If the ash was so bad… He pulled his pack close and started to rifle through it, checking his supplies for something useful. Some food, a waterskin, medical supplies if either one got injured, a spare vial of Lord Hades' blood if they got into a seriously bad fight… He pulled out a strip of cheesecloth, unsure what he'd taken it for, but it would be useful now.

"Wrap this around your face, see it if helps," he said, and the words came out as more of an order. Asterius nodded and took the cloth, tying it around the back of his neck and pulling it over his nose and mouth. He took a few breaths, nodding after a moment.

"It helps a little," he answered, but his voice was still a little raspy. Rhadamanthys handed him the waterskin. Asterius made a noise of amusement. "When we first met, I don't recall you being quite so concerned over my well-being. Or anyone's. You just wanted to stay in the grass and feed jerky to the monsters."

Rhadamanthys huffed. "Maybe, but I'd earned a break. I wasn't ready for people yet." And it was true, he hadn't been. He'd been king for decades, running his own port kingdom from behind a veil of a curtain, hoping his brother wouldn't notice his existence and declare war on him, like he once had so many years prior. When he'd entered the Meikai and signed on as a Spectre, he took a few years to simply remember what it was to be a person.

Things were different, as a Spectre. He eschewed the regality he'd once enjoyed, preferring the savagery and simple wildness of the claimed but unworked lands around the central palace. He'd felt more kinship with the beasts than his fellow Spectres. Asterius had been one of the first who had seemed at all recognizable. When he'd returned a little to civilization, even dead civilization, he'd found he barely remembered how to interact with anyone. Something had changed, and he wasn't sure what it was.

"Am I people?" Asterius asked. "I ask because nobody's very sure if I am or not. Father always said I was, but nobody wanted to agree with him. They did when he was watching, because Father was a force to be reckoned with, but they didn't like it."

He blinked, and turned to him. He had settled into a human form now, hooves changed for feet and horns gone from his head. He was… smaller, somehow, or maybe it was just his position. Asterius had always loomed over everyone, even the gods they served. Now, he seemed a normal man, if a bit on the tall side.

Stars, Rhadamanthys had forgotten how little of the world Asterius had seen. It would explain why he'd volunteered so forcefully for the assignment. "I think you're people," he said, slowly, "But it would require shifting the definition of 'people' a little bit. The… There are chimaeras and sphinxes and manticores in the Meikai, and some of them I would consider people. They hold a conversation, they remember it the next day, they want to hear poetry that I steal from Minos' desk when he's not looking. If 'people' doesn't just apply to the ones who look like humans, and applies to all those who can hold their personality and language from day to day, and communicate properly, then 'people' includes you, too. It shouldn't matter what body the person is in."

It rang true enough, as far as he knew. Asterius' story was a well-known one, especially as it had, at this point, turned from history to story and legend and myth. They had been dead for centuries. Daedalus had escaped them the entire time, and it was going to be a day indeed when Minos brought him in for trial. But he'd had to hide his stepson, take extreme measures to keep war from his doorstep in his neighbours' anger that he kept a monster and didn't slay him on the spot.

Sometimes, he thought they judged a bit too quickly. Anyone could see that Asterius had all the makings of the princehood he'd been denied. Just because he had hooves didn't mean he didn't deserve his own birthright.

"That's… Thank you," Asterius managed to reply. "Also, I feel you should be aware. There are scales across the bridge of your nose, and those weren't there a few moments ago."

Rhadamanthys froze, and lifted a hand to his nose. It didn't feel the way he expected it to. True to Asterius' word, there were scales, not unlike a snake, right in the middle of his face, from the middle of his brow almost down to the tip. He let out a huff, and to his surprise, it was deeper, more gravelly than he expected it to be.

"That's…. New," he said, faintly. Asterius, in the firelight, grinned. At least, he looked like he was grinning, from his eyebrows and what of his cheeks he could see past the cheesecloth. 

"I thought that might happen," he commented. Rhadamanthys stared at him, and he continued. "I thought I wouldn't be the only one, and I'm surprised her majesty listened to me. I asked why I had to be the only one who was half monster, when all of our surplices are monsters, too. I think you're turning into a wyvern, because you're acting like it. Just like how the more bull I think like, the more of a bull I am."

Rhadamanthys gave a slow nod. "I… see. I hope this isn't a one-way journey. I doubt I could negotiate with our borders if I didn't have thumbs to do it with."

Asterius snorted, a very bull-like sound. "I can go back and forth, so you should be able to as well. But it makes everything a lot more interesting. I wonder what other wyvern things you could do, if you put your mind to it."

He thought. The idea had merit, if he focused on it, and he closed his eyes. This worked out rather well lying down, and he already mostly was. So he took in a breath, and turned his attention to his physical body. Being a demigod meant being more malleable than a human, meant being halfway flesh and halfway a lightning storm incarnate, never fully one or other other, but always both. Sometimes, he had to remind himself he had flesh and bone, just to keep the lightning from burning him to a crisp underneath his skin.

He could feel the scales across his nose, not quite like a scab, but more like his skin had tightened there, less willing to shift with the muscles beneath it. He could feel similar patches, too, across his hips and the back of his ankles, and one specific patch directly over his tailbone. His tailbone, which now that he turned his attention towards it, promptly began to feel a bit bare, like it didn't have any clothes covering it, like something was missing.

If he grew a tail, he hoped it wasn't too painful. Better yet, he hoped it was dextrous enough to use as a proper limb. He didn't know.

Asterius coughed again, attempting to clear his throat. Rhadamanthys snapped his face towards him, eyes still closed, and rose on his palms and the balls of his feet to stride over. When his companion was done coughing, he flicked his cosmos in an amused gesture.

"You're walking on all fours now," he said. "Are you doing that on purpose?"

He opened his eyes, and they were inches from each other. "I… No," he answered, slowly, unsure, attempting to find the words he didn't have for this. "I am… Sometimes it is difficult to be a demigod. To stand halfway between the mortal and the divine. It means I must sometimes ask my body to do what my mind will not, because my body has to make peace with being halfway a force of nature, and it knows itself better than I know it. I must allow it to guide me. And it is taking me down a path I do not recognize, and yet, I feel I know it all the same."

He was halfway guessing. He did know this path. His body had crossed the space of the cave to sit beside his companion easily, ignoring the fact that crawling was not a natural way for a human to move around. It knew what it was doing, and at no point had anything seemed unnatural. He attempted a sigh of annoyance, and what came out was a growl, and a warmth just behind his sternum that had never been there before.

Lightning focused in his fingertips, his toes, the length of his spine, and occasionally his biceps, racing down his arms to fulfill his desires and escape the confines of a mortal body. This was not lightning. It was slower, warmer, ever-burning. Lightning was quick and sharp and always in a state of frenzy. This was a hearth, behind his sternum, set into his lungs. He sat up, slow, careful, shifting his weight onto one hip to never force weight on his tailbone. Rhadamanthys took in a breath, as deep as he could manage, and let it all out in one sharp exhale.

The air he exhaled caught fire an inch away from his lips, and scorched a three-foot, scarlet flame into the air. He coughed a moment later as the scorch hit his throat. Asterius thumped him on the back, the stars in his cosmos thoroughly delighted.

He rose a moment later, shaking off the fire. He could still feel it in his chest, as well as he had never stopped feeling lightning as long as he could remember. "You know what might have been nice? Someone informing me this was going to happen before it did. That would have been nice."

Asterius laughed, a wheezing sound still. "If you can breathe fire and you have scales running down your neck, I should wonder if you'll start acting like a dragon. I hear they have hoards, and I wonder what you're going to decide nobody's allowed to touch without your explicit permission."

Rhadamanthys snorted - a very draconic sound now, apparently - and mock-glared at him. "Are you volunteering for the position?" The idea actually didn't sound that bad. He already knew how to protect things. That was practically what he'd been doing since he'd been born. His mother, his brothers, his kingdom, his place in the Meikai, and those he'd gone on assignments with. He was going to be spending the next few centuries, if not longer, with the people he shared the Meikai with.

Besides, he liked Asterius well enough, and if he understood how to toe the line between monster and human the way Rhadamanthys toed it between human and god, then he needed to keep him around.

At least, that was the reason he could stick with. Asterius was a lot less experienced than he was, and he needed the extra hand whenever he had to venture out into the greater world.

"I mean, I could consider it," Asterius answered, laughter still behind his words. "I think I wouldn't mind a dragon looking out for me. It seems like a good arrangement, and for all I know, I'm going to need it. And…"

Asterius trailed off. Rhadamanthys touched his hand, gently, ignoring the scales he could see spreading across the back of his hand. "And?"

"I think it would be nice, to have someone who understands the parts of me that aren't people," he answered, and he looked away. His voice was still thick with ash. That would have to change, and soon. He was going to be breathing a lot heavier before too long if it didn't.

A corner of his mouth twitched. "Then you'll have to teach me, because all I am in the end is the storm forced into a human corpse."

"A dragon corpse, now," Asterius corrected. Rhadamanthys snorted again, and rose to his feet. Or rather, the balls of his feet, his heels unwilling to strike the ground. He stepped over to the mouth of the cave, took in a breath, looking for lightning.

He was the storm given a beating heart and blood to call his own. It came to his fingertips, to his surplice, which added only more power to his call. Asterius needed the ash to leave. It would leave when the summer winds pushed it out to a different part of the known world.

He couldn't give a damn about where the ash would fall, if Asterius could breathe properly. He took in a breath, feeling the lightning slip to his tingling fingertips. He lifted one hand to the sky, as the wind picked up around him. It was paying attention now, it recognized him for what he was. Ash and smoke and fire and wind. Maybe now, he could breathe that combination of death. The tingling in his fingertips intensified, impatient, forced to wait. And he let the power loose.

The wind shifted from 'fast' to 'hurricane' in under ten seconds. It picked up strong, forceful, the snapping of a few trees off their roots and into the storm. This could turn to a tornado, if he wasn't careful. He didn't want to centralize the storm. He wanted it gone.

Power surged from his toes, his anchor to the ground, to his fingertips. He was lightning, he was a lightning rod. He was a dragon of the sky.

He let it loose in one final sweep. Trees ripped from the ground and thrown to the winds, angry and wailing and reckless. When the gale died down, it was to a clear, starry sky. Asterius, suddenly behind him, let out a soft noise of approval.

"No more ash," Rhadamanthys said, his voice calm and yet somehow roughened. "It should be easier to breathe now."

Asterius nodded. "It is, a little. My lungs will have to clear it all out, but it doesn't burn so much. Thanks- really."

What escaped him was a noise of pleasure not unlike a purr - he'd heard manticores make the noise before, but he hadn't met enough dragons to know what sounds they made. He turned to retreat back into the cave, settling a hand on Asterius' shoulder to lead him back. The idea of being away from him was quickly turning repulsive.

"How much do you know about dragons?" he asked. "We don't seem to have any in the Meikai, and I admit I've never studied them."

"Well, they hoard stuff, and they're giant flying lizards," Asterius answered, which was about as much as he knew about them. "I've always heard they were regal creatures, but still monsters. I don't know if they eat princesses or just hoard them, but there's a relationship there, I think."

"Anything involving princes?"

"Ha, ha." Asterius glanced at him, cheesecloth already removed from his face. "You know, I'm going to guess you have no idea what's actually going on in that head of yours right now, but you're speaking a language I know intimately that I never hear anyone else speak, and what you're saying is pretty interesting."

He blinked, pausing where he stood. "I'm speaking in Greek. So are you. What are you talking about?"

Asterius tilted his head, ever so slightly. "I mean there's a growl to your words and you're walking on your toes, and you have put yourself directly between me and the opening of the cave ever since you noticed you had scales on your face. You gave me a mask for the ash, and then you spent a rather large amount of power diverting the ash in the sky to somewhere that we're not. That's a language, and you're speaking it, and I know what you're saying even if you don't."

It actually made sense, and when he glanced down, he was standing perfectly on his toes. He'd figured he would be off-balance, if he did that normally. But he wasn't. "All right, so assume I am speaking this language of yours," he began. "What am I saying, then?"

Asterius grinned. "Well, I can't tell you that. What I can do, though, is answer you." One moment Asterius stood a foot inside the small cave where the fire still burned, and the next, his lips were against Rhadamanthys', arms carelessly over his shoulders. Rhadamanthys closed his eyes, relaxing, his hands finding Asterius' hips. Asterius kissed him with an open mouth, and he returned it, slipping his tongue ever so slightly into his mouth.

He couldn't have put a name to what he tasted like. He almost didn't care. He was too busy crushing his lips against his, pulling him in by his hips, refusing to let him go. He wouldn't have guessed at this outcome an hour prior. But he was on this path now, the path that lead to whatever his surplice knew, whatever Asterius had always known, that he didn't.

He didn't even notice his tail until he felt it curl around Asterius' shin, the feeling new and yet somehow old; like he had always had one and had simply forgotten it had existed. Enough that when Asterius stepped closer, answering the tug from his tail, he only tightened his grip. Rhadamanthys broke the kiss, unable to breathe, blinking his eyes open.

Asterius grinned. Rhadamanths returned his smile, slow at first, but then easier and brighter.

"I don't…" He took a breath. "I don't know what this is. I'll be the first to admit I have no idea what I'm doing, and I'm letting whatever part of me does remember guide me. You're the one who knows, and you'll have to be the one to tell me. So…"

Asterius withdrew one of his arms, his palm catching Rhadamanthys' cheek. He leaned into it automatically, pressing another kiss to the base of his thumb. "So?"

"So I would like it if we stayed together," he finished. "I don't want to let you go, and... " He sighed, thinking his words over for a moment. "Minos is protective of you, and I can get why, and he's not going to like the idea of me doing it for him. And yet, I feel like fighting him on that if he gets angry."

"Which you wouldn't do for Crete, which makes it quite the compliment," Asterius finished for him. He shrugged. "Father knew he might have to give me up someday, when I grew up and decided to start a family of my own. It was less likely as the years went on, since I was less people than I was monster to everyone, but he treats me like people. I think he might be okay with me going off and carrying out a courtship if he knows you're not going to hurt me."

Rhadamanthys snorted. "The idea is against anything I would naturally do, but Minos thinks I destroy everything I touch. It may yet be better to elope."

Asterius laughed, and it was a wonderful sound. "Maybe we will," he agreed. "I'll teach you how to answer the call of the wilds. There won't be anything wrong with that, and you'll learn how to be a dragon a bit. Or even better, when we get back, we'll inform the King and Queen, and they'll give us some time off to do exactly that. So long as we come back with a good few stories to tell, I know her majesty will be okay with it."

Rhadamanthys pulled him in again, touching their noses together. Asterius returned the gesture. "Perhaps, but let's see where the night gets us first."

Asterius' smile was soft, and perfect, and he could smell him a bit now, all wild grass and dark earth and fur. Another draconic trait that he was beginning to recognize. This time, Rhadamanthys kissed him, and he couldn't be happier. 


End file.
